Writers Deserve to Be Paid: Michele Young-Stone

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH—Novelist and Outer Banks resident Michele Young-Stone will lead the class "The Art of Novel Writing: From Idea to Polished Manuscript and Beyond" at the North Carolina Writers' Network 2017 Fall Conference, November 3-5, at the Holiday Inn Resort in Wrightsville Beach.

Michele Young-Stone is the author of three novels: the upcoming Lost in the Beehive (Simon & Schuster, 2018), Above Us Only Sky (2015), and The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors (2010). She recently completed a fourth novel, George Glass Loves Lily Snow, and is at work on a fifth. After teaching high school English for seven years, Michele earned her MFA in fiction writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. She lives in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with her husband and son where she leads a novel-writing workshop for the Dare County Arts Council.

"Oddly enough, I never published in a literary magazine or journal," Michele says. "I could have published my work for free, but I felt like I deserved to get paid for my words, so I went from zero publications to a published novel. "

In her class, Michele will discuss how to take an idea and develop it into a publishable novel. She will talk from personal experience in addition to discussing the discipline of writing, outlining, breaking through plateaus, revision, and finding the right agent.

Fall Conference attracts hundreds of writers from around the country and provides a weekend full of activities that include lunch and dinner banquets with readings, keynotes, tracks in several genres, open mic sessions, and the opportunity for one-on-one manuscript critiques with editors or agents. This year's Master Classes will be led by Dan Albergotti (Poetry); Wendy Brenner (Creative Nonfiction); and Nina de Gramont (Fiction).

The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to all writers, in all genres, at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.